* Astronomy

The International Space Station


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Credit NASA

Image taken by the STS-118 crew

Saturdays spacewalk a success: Last hurdle completed
Because all the spacewalking objectives were accomplished by astronauts Whitson and Tani, NASA mission control managers have decided to activate Harmonys systems a day early, which if all goes well will give a clear go-ahead for space shuttle Atlantis, and the STS-122 mission, to launch on December 6, 2007.   

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Today, two space station astronauts, commander Peggy Whitson and flight engineer Dan Tani, began a final spacewalk to finish hooking up the Italian-made Harmony module.

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Credit NASA

The astronauts also planned to inspect a rotary joint of one of the station's solar arrays, which have been experiencing higher than expected friction.
In two weeks time the next set of components are to arrive at the International Space Station (ISS) orbiting laboratory.

A spacewalk scheduled for 6 hours and 40 minutes by International Space Station Commander Peggy Whitson and Flight Engineer Dan Tani to outfit the Harmony node in its new position in front of the U.S laboratory Destiny began at 5:10 a.m. EST Tuesday.
With the Harmony Node 2 attached to its permanent home on the forward end of the Destiny laboratory, the spacewalkers will hook up electrical and fluid connections between the two modules. The spacewalk is expected to last 6 hours and 40 minutes. Much of the spacewalk will be devoted to moving a 300-pound, 18.5-foot fluid tray from its temporary location at the centre of the station's main truss to Harmony.

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